Love Cook
by Adali
Summary: Sanji is stressed, Zoro is repressed, and Nami knows everything but what to do. Luffy's trying his best, but the balance aboard the Merry is precarious. PostAlabasta. T for swearing, suggestion. Various pairings, mention of ZoSan SaNa ZoNa LuNa ZoSopp etc
1. Chapter I

_It's finally here: the dubiously titled Love Cook, a longer discussion of whose creation is available on my bio if you're that terribly interested. Current chapter count stands at six written, nine planned. However, to give you an idea: the first written chapter, posted here, is Chapter I. The last is Chapter XX. How can I cover twenty chapters with seven (one as yet unwritten)? There's room for expansion, since reviews tend to inspire me, and I always wish I had more room. Now I have it. This whole thing, it should be noted, is an experiment in writing technique (not technique for what I write, exactly, but how I organize the writing... oh, never mind, it doesn't make sense anyway). The first step, procrastination, has been exercised for a very long time. So, now we move on to step two, if you're still bothering to read the author's notes._

* * *

**Chapter One**

_In which nothing productive happens _

It was hard to say on this ocean, where days were never quite the right length and sometimes a sunrise turned into a sunset; where the seasons could change twice in the span of a day, and the newspapers were occasionally fifty years out of date when they were delivered, but Sanji was certain that it was, or soon would be, or just had been, Nami's birthday. As chef of the Going Merry and self-proclaimed lover of women - and Nami-san in particular - he felt it right that he prepare a birthday feast worthy of her.

It wouldn't be the sort of makeshift feast he prepared whenever Luffy called for one - be it because they'd come upon a new island or seen a cool monster or the captain was just feeling particularly hungry. There had been a bustling market on the last island, and he had bought special ingredients for just this purpose. Truly, this was going to be a marvelous feast, as lavish and wonderful as his - admittedly great - skills could prepare.

Or it would be, if he could ever get around to preparing it.

"Oi, shitty marimo! Get the hell out of my kitchen!" The swordsman managed to dodge most of the force of the kick that the irate cook sent towards his head. _Damn, that shitty swordsman's finally learning what to expect. _Really, the only surprise should be that it had taken Zoro this long to figure out that raiding the pantry would earn him a kick to the head.

"I'm hungry," was the grunted response, accompanied by a fist flying towards Sanji's jaw. "Damn cook, you're supposed to feed us." Sanji considered pulling out a frying pan to hit the other man with. In all likelihood, Zoro would use a sword to block it, and he didn't have a frying pan to waste on that. It was damn hard to find good ones on the Grand Line.

Instead, he contented himself with kicking Zoro in the backside as the man rooted through one of the lower cupboards. "You can wait, shithead. I'm making a feast for Nami-san's birthday."

"So what?" Zoro said, his words muffled by the cupboard he had his head in.

"So Nami-san…"

"That damn woman. It's all about what she wants," Zoro groused, extracting himself from the cupboard with a package of crackers in one hand. "And she's too good to say 'thank you' after you do something for her. Instead, she has to turn it around so that you owe her even more."

Sanji didn't really care what Nami-san had done to the idiot this time; she probably had the right of it anyway. "Maybe if you just paid her back…" A baleful stare dared him to finish the thought out loud.

"Yeah? How? She's charging triple interest, plus withholding my portion of whatever we get until I pay her back."

"So?"

"So how am I supposed to pay her back if she won't give me my damn money? Shitty cook," he added. "I need a drink."

Sanji briefly considered denying him one, until he caught a good look at the other man's eyes. Here was a man that really, really needed a strong drink. Wordlessly, Sanji handed over a bottle of rum, wincing a little as Zoro bit the cork out and spat it across the kitchen. It didn't matter how desperately the other man might need a stiff drink, there was no call to be making a mess of _Sanji's_ kitchen.

There was more to this than hunger or a ridiculous debt. If Zoro wanted a snack, he'd come and take one, exchange a few insults and blows, and retreat back to the deck or the crow's-nest to enjoy it. If he needed a drink, he'd take the bottle down below deck to some dark corner where he'd try to drink himself senseless without anyone - except Sanji - the wiser. Under no circumstances did he sit in a corner of the kitchen with his katana propped around him and glare at Sanji while trying to pretend to ignore him.

"Yeah?" the stupid marimo demanded, meeting Sanji's slightly puzzled glance. "Get on with it, if you think it'll make her happy."

Definitely something going on. _Huh._

.oOo.

"Hey Sanji…"

"What?" Sanji spun to glare at the intruder. It was bad enough having the shitty marimo sitting in the corner, alternately trying to drink himself stupid with too little alcohol and glaring at Sanji; he would swear the man was sulking. Now he had to have others actively interrupt his work as well?

"Er… have you seen…" Usopp began hesitantly. "Oh, Zoro! Can you help me?" The glare the swordsman sent the gunner was truly murderous. _Definitely sulking._ If Sanji hadn't known the two were nakama, he would have sworn it was a look of pure hate.

"Go to hell."

"Eheh, Zoro," Usopp laughed nervously, "I really need your help."

"Go to hell." The glare had been transferred to the rum bottle, as though it were the poor glass bottle's fault it was empty. Turning back to his stove, Sanji grabbed a bottle from an overhead cupboard and tossed it over his shoulder. Even without looking, he knew Zoro caught it. He also knew the other man hadn't been looking at him. "Dumbass cook," he heard by way of thanks.

"Shitty marimo."

"Puh-lease, Zoro?" came Usopp's whine.

"Go to hell!" The empty rum bottle narrowly missed Usopp's head before it smashed into the galley wall.

"Stop making a mess of my kitchen, shithead!" A slamming door was his only answer. "Get the hell out of my kitchen, long nose."

Usopp wasn't even listening to him. "What do you think is wrong with him?"

"Why would I care about the shitty marimo?"

"But we're nakama! We have to care about each other."

Sanji slammed a bowl down onto the counter with more force than strictly necessary and started cracking eggs into it as though each was a certain green-haired head. "You're such a woman." He didn't mean it at all in the nice way. "Get out of my kitchen."

"But Sanji…" Again, that irritating whine.

"If you need help, go ask Chopper. I'm busy."

Usopp's attention seemed to be back on his earlier topic. "Zoro's been really tense lately. Do you think something might have happened?"

_What a stupid question._ They had all nearly died in Alabasta. Their dear nakama Vivi-chan had been replaced on the Going Merry, if not in their hearts, by Robin-chan. The bounty on the captain's head had been raised, and a hefty one placed on Zoro's. It made Sanji worry that he might gain one for himself soon. _A worry for another time._ He wasn't sure he'd be as pleased at having one as Zoro and Luffy had been. It had the potential to make his shopping trips - and his flirting - awkward.

Zoro had been getting steadily worse since they left Alabasta, to the point where he had just sat in the kitchen while drinking. Sanji had noticed it but, unlike Usopp seemed to be, he wasn't in the mood to discuss it. "It doesn't matter."

"It does too. He's our _nakama_," Usopp insisted.

"If that's what it is," Sanji snapped, whisking away vigorously, "why hasn't anyone else said anything?"

"Because…" Usopp started, only to be cut off by the cook's annoyed answer to his own question.

"Because it doesn't matter, you idiot. It doesn't matter _because _we're nakama." His foot connected solidly with the side of Usopp's head. "Get the hell out of my kitchen."

_What the hell is wrong with him? _Sanji wondered as the gunner made his piteous way out of the kitchen.

.oOo.

The sound of the door opening was so quiet Sanji almost missed it. Not Luffy, then; the captain had yet to come bother him this afternoon. _What amazing restraint by the aho-captain._

"Ne, Sanji-kun?"

"Hai, Nami-san?" Any lesser cook would have forgotten the simmering pans on the stovetop at the arrival of their idol, but Sanji was well practiced at simultaneously adoring Nami-san and cooking delectable foods for her.

"Oh, you're busy."

"Not at all, my dear." Nami-san had stopped blushing at his extravagant praise some time ago. She had also stopped hitting him for it. Sanji wasn't sure it was a good thing. "What do you need?"

"I just want a snack before dinner, if that's alright?"

"Of course, Nami-san. Anything for you. But you must leave room for your dinner," he admonished, nearly breaking his personal code to never contradict Nami-san.

There was a silence from the other end of the room. _Did I offend her? Nami-san, don't think I meant you would get fat. You would never be fat! Only, I want you to enjoy your feast, but I also want it to be a surprise. I'm so sorry, Nami-san!_

"Ne, Sanji-kun." Her voice was very quiet, overlaid with worry and doubt. _It's even worse than I thought!_ He heard her sit down. "Luffy…"

Sanji nearly proved that a person can literally melt with relief. Nami-san didn't think he'd implied she was fat. Yet there was uncertainty in her voice, which was perhaps worse. Something was bothering his beloved Nami-san, and he would do anything in his power to make it right.

"You worry about Luffy, don't you?" he said as gently as he could, placing a cup of tea on the table beside her.

"No. Yes. Not like that. I mean, I know I shouldn't, because he's so strong and he's only mostly an idiot, and my worrying doesn't help anything, but all the same… do you think it's weird, Sanji-kun?"

Sanji would have liked to have said that nothing Nami-san did could be weird, or that what was weird was that she worried about Luffy and not himself, but he knew she wasn't looking for a flippant answer. "I suppose it's a part of caring for your nakama," he offered cautiously. He didn't add that it wasn't always just that: he himself worried a great deal more about Nami-san than he did about most of the rest of the crew.

Nami sighed as she stared into her cup of tea. "I worry about Zoro too," she confessed quietly. "I know he's strong too, but somehow it seems he's got more to take care of than he can handle. I mean, he's always the one that has to save Luffy. Or me," she added so quietly that Sanji wondered if she'd meant to say it aloud. Then she continued more loudly, "It just seems that he can't take care of everyone like he tries to, so the one he doesn't take care of is himself."

Sanji wanted to say something like 'damn that shitty marimo for making you worry, Nami-san.' "There's nothing wrong with caring for your nakama," he said gently instead. She didn't seem to hear him.

"And now he has a bounty on his head. And he's happy about it!"

"Nami, he's a pirate."

Her eyes were wide and dark, filled with something he couldn't identify and she was trying desperately to repress. "What about you, Sanji-kun? Do you want a price on your head?" That gave him pause._ How does she know that's been on my mind?_

"I… I guess I'm a different sort of pirate, Nami-san."

Nami-san gave a weak sort of laugh. "What'll you do when you get one, Sanji-kun? What about when _I _get one?"

She'd hid it better than Zoro, Sanji mused, but something had happened in Alabasta or since then that had changed Nami-san. It wasn't a big change, but she was no longer the woman that Chopper had called a demon for her apparent unconcern over her nakama.

"I guess I'll deal with that when it happens." It didn't seem like enough of an answer. "I won't avoid one, not if I have to give up my dream or my nakama to do it." He'd meant to say it mildly, but the words contained a vehemence he hadn't planned for them to have.

Nami-san's smile had a brightness that made him sure it was forced, but her words held a sincerity that tugged his heart. "Thank you, Sanji-kun." His heart beat faster to hear his idol use that tone for him, and he gave her his brightest smile. Her own increased a little in return, growing more sincere. "I'll just grab some crackers, Sanji-kun. I'm sure you're really busy."

"Not at all, Nami-san. It's no trouble."

She laughed. "You always say that," she accused him as she knelt to rummage through a cupboard. She was back to the bright and care-free Nami-san he loved, and if he could still see an edge of sadness to her where she hadn't hidden it well enough, it didn't seem to hurt her as much.

Besides which, there was the delightful view of her gorgeous rear to enjoy as she dug through the cupboard.

"Where did all the crackers go?"

"Shitty marimo!" The shithead must have taken the last of the crackers that Nami-san wanted for her snack.

"Dammit Zoro!" Nami stormed out of the kitchen, sadness and worry forgotten in her anger at having her snack stolen. "Just wait until I find that…" Sanji was a bit shocked at the crudeness of the name that came from Nami-san's sweet lips.

He hoped she would beat up the shitty marimo quickly so that she could be happy in time to enjoy her birthday feast.

.oOo.

Nami-san hadn't yet tried reindeer meat. It was a hard-to-find delicacy unattainable anywhere but the remote regions of North Blue and the occasional part of the Grand Line. The last island had had a selection the likes of which Sanji hadn't seen since he was a young boy, when the greatest market for reindeer meat was only a half day's sail away.

He hadn't gotten any.

He knew Nami-san would enjoy it, would appreciate the subtle flavors and exotic tastes of properly prepared reindeer meat.

But when your ship's doctor, the one who fixes and dresses your wounds at the point when you're very close to being just a large set of steaks yourself, is a reindeer, there's something intrinsically wrong about dicing and seasoning a dead reindeer. Disrespectful, if you will. He hadn't even got venison, the next best thing. He'd settled for antelope from West Blue. Even Chopper couldn't expect them to give up eating meat, not with this crew.

Speak of the devil - or the squeaky voiced runt, as the case may be - and he shall appear. "Hey, Sanji…"

Sanji tried to repress a sigh, and failed. Today looked to be one of those days when he couldn't go an hour without being interrupted by someone. On this of all days, when he was trying to prepare a surprise feast for Nami-san that he didn't want anyone to know about. Well, the shitty marimo-head knew, but he didn't count.

"What do you need Chopper?" At least Chopper knew better to disturb him unless it was important.

"I need to borrow some herbs. I… I think Zoro's sick!" He wasn't in hysterics yet, thankfully. For a doctor, Chopper seemed to have a surprising amount of trouble keeping his head when people around him were sick or injured. Once he remembered himself he was completely competent and professional, but the whiney theatrics before that point were annoying.

"Shithead's fine."

Chopper squeaked unhappily. "No, no. He's really red, and he won't wake up, and his pulse and breathing are way below what they should be. I found him down in the hold - I think he collapsed!"

"Shithead's fine."

Now the agitation took hold fully. "He needs a doctor. He's really sick. What should I do? Sanji, I don't know what to do."

"Calm down. Shithead's fine." Sanji crouched down and pointed his kebab skewer at the reindeer's blue nose. "He's not sick. If he has a problem, it's nothing you can help him with. He'll be up and about for dinner." It would be easier to be kind and reassuring if he hadn't gone through this so often. At least there wasn't anyone around trying to kill them while Chopper ran about losing his head.

Faced with the threatening skewer and reassuring words, Chopper stopped waving his arms about and opened his eyes fully. "I'm sorry, Sanji. It's just that he's been acting weird ever since Alabasta, and I think it's getting worse. Usopp's really worried."

_And you worship that idiot, don't you?_ Sanji found himself thinking uncharitably.

"I thought it might be some new disease. Nami's been acting a bit funny too, sometimes. Don't you think? Maybe it's contagious."

"Women are like that." He couldn't always defend Nami-san against her enemies, even if she had needed it. But as a gentleman, he wouldn't allow others to speculate or talk about Nami-san behind her back.

"Oh, okay."

"Don't worry about them, Chopper. They can take care of themselves."

The little reindeer gave a resigned squeak. "That's what worries me."

_Yeah. Me too. _

.oOo.

"Hey Sanji…"

A pot in the face shut the speaker up before Sanji fully realized he had thrown it.

"Oweee, Sanjiiii, that hurt," Luffy whined around the pot.

"Give me pack my pot, dumbass." Luffy pulled it off his face and handed it to the cook, his grin as bright as always.

"Why'd'ja do that, Sanji? It's the first time I've asked for a snack this afternoon." Sanji didn't have to look to know there would be an exaggerated pout on the boy's face. Because, despite it all, despite a hundren million beli bounty on his head and nearly dying at least a dozen times and everything they'd faced on the Grand Line, Luffy was still a boy. This simple truth surprised Sanji every time it occurred to him.

"I'm busy right now."

"But you're always busy, Sanjiiii, and I'm hungryyyy."

"It's Nami-san's birthday, baka, and…" If he hadn't been so frustrated at being constantly interrupted, it would never have slipped out.

"It's Nami's birthday? Then we gotta have a feast!"

"That's why I'm busy, dumbass."

A pause. "Oh." Then, "Will there be meat?"

"Lots. But only if you stop bothering me and let me cook."

"Oh." _Wait for it… _"So, no snack?"

"No snack."

Then came the sort of pause you got when Luffy was thinking really hard about something. "Really lots of meat?" Sometimes Sanji wondered at himself, at his willingness to follow this boy to the end of the world.

"Enough even for you."

"Okay!"

That should have been the end of it. The promise of more meat later, even at the expense of right now - as long as it was enough meat later, of course - should have sent Luffy scampering back to his favorite perch on the Merry's figurehead, chattering happily about the feast that was to come. _I hope Nami-san's surprise isn't ruined by the idiot._

"Hey Sanji…"

"No snack."

"Why's Zoro so grumpy lately?" _Why does everyone want to talk about that shitty swordsman today?_

"Who knows with that idiot marimo?"

"Maybe it's 'cause Nami hit him." With anyone else, they would have planned this speech just so they could share this piece of news without seeming like a gossip. But Luffy wasn't anyone else, and with his wide eyes and slightly wrinkled forehead - a uniquely Luffy expression, which might not have been physically possible for anyone else - it was obvious that this had truly just occurred to him.

Sanji rolled his eyes. "Nami-san always hits him. He deserves it." _That shithead, upsetting Nami-san._

"But this time she meant it!"

And there it was: the reason Sanji would follow this boy to the end of the world. There was no denying that Luffy was an idiot, and yet… and yet with his stupid simplicity, that absolute lack of guile that meant he fell for even the simplest tricks and stupidest lies, he could see right to the heart of a matter and understand it on a level that Sanji hadn't thought was possible. Armies crumbled in the face of Luffy's idiot logic and utter conviction.

"And then she punched Usopp too, but I think she just wanted to hit Zoro again." _Damn that shitty marimo. _The thought came more from habit that actual irritation at the swordsman.

There was more to this than stolen crackers, Sanji was sure. So why couldn't he see it? There was something there, deep under the surface, and both Zoro and Nami had buried it so deeply that Sanji couldn't even begin to see the shape of it. But maybe, just maybe…

He overcame his instinctive desire to protect and defend Nami-san in everything, to take her side in all disputes, enough to ask, "Why would she hit him?"

"She shouldn't! She cares about him. They're nakama!"

Sanji tossed his captain an apple, feeling like he was giving a dog a treat for performing a trick. Only he never felt guilty about feeding dogs, so why did he feel so rotten now? "Don't worry about it, Luffy. It'll work out."

"Thank-ya Sanji!" the boy called happily as he bounded out of the kitchen, his cheeks bulging as he gobbled the fruit.

_Huh. Trust that idiot not to get it._ Sanji had no illusions about being able to see people's motives. He tended to blindly accept that his nakama cared for each other and would do everything in the world to protect and help each other; he didn't need to know their specific rationales to know that. But before Luffy's idiot savant eyes, everything was laid bare, even if the dumbass couldn't understand what he saw. Yeah, you could always trust Luffy to see to the heart of the matter.

"Dumbass." He wasn't sure who he meant.

* * *

_Yes, but what's it all about? So you know, the first two chapters are very light on plot - they're more for setting up the character dynamics. The main conflict, if you will, is introduced in the third chapter. However, overall the story is not very plot driven: that is, there is one, but it's more about how the characters deal with it, and not the next amazing plot twist. Just in case you're confused._


	2. Chapter III

_The second chapter is called Chapter III. Humor me. Plot will arrive next chapter, I promise.  
_

* * *

**Chapter III **

_In which there is only a semblance of normalcy _

He slipped through the door and closed it slowly behind him, careful not to let the hinges creak. The lock gave a soft _snick _as it caught. He turned around, relieved to have gotten away, and realized he may have dodged the dinosaur only to land in front of a battle-primed Elbaf warrior. Things were suddenly looking a lot less promising than they had a second ago.

Nami only had one eye open, and her hair was still tousled from sleep, but even so she was terrifying. "You woke me up." It wasn't quite an accusation - more a condemnation, really, though Zoro would never use the word aloud in case he ruined his rocks-for-brains, super-macho-guy swordsman image.

"You've been sleeping a long time anyway." Even as the words came out of his mouth, he realized he should, for once, have just bowed his head and apologized. When she was in a state like this, Nami wouldn't settle for increasing his debt: he was courting grievous bodily harm here. He wouldn't be able to defend himself because, while he wasn't as stupid as the shitty cook, saying he'd never hit a woman and all, he'd never hit _Nami. _He wasn't that stupid, and he liked all his various important and very manly bits properly attached, thank you.

"I was up for _three days _steering this ship through that storm, you -" Her voice had started rising from the very first word and, fearful of discovery, Zoro shut her up with a hand over her mouth.

"I know," he muttered, hoping to forestall her from biting him. "And... uh, thanks. We really needed you. But don't yell, right? He'll find me."

She pulled his hand down from her mouth and gave him a searching look. "Who'll find you?" She probably already knew the answer, damn her. She knew bloody _everything_, which was what made her so impossible, but also completely irreplaceable.

"Damn gunner," he said, slumping to the floor. He'd passed it off as coincidence at first: it was a small ship, so people were bound to see each other all the time. Then it got a little more consistent, and he was seeing Usopp twice as much as any of his other nakama, which meant he almost never lost sight of him. It was creepy. He'd started changing his schedule, just a little, to try and get some time on his own. It hadn't worked. He'd tried diversionary tactics, deliberately approaching the gunner to send him on errands to other parts of the ship. Usopp had contrived to complete the tasks and simultaneously keep an eye on Zoro, and the whole thing had turned freaky.

Zoro wasn't one to run from a fight, and he'd kick the ass of any bastard who said otherwise. But if one of his nakama was stalking him for no reason that he could see, that wasn't technically a fight, and so an elaborate game of hide-and-seek had begun. Well, maybe not that elaborate: Zoro did everything he could to hide while acting like he wasn't, and Usopp stuck to him like a limpet.

The situation had become desperate enough that Zoro had retreated to the witch's den to regroup. Faced with Nami, though, he was beginning to think that maybe things hadn't been quite that bad. On the other hand, this sort of _was _a fight, right here, and he wasn't going to retreat, even though Nami always managed to stab him in the back even if he faced her head-on.

Nami laughed at him and sat up, running a hand through her tangerine hair in an unconscious effort to force it into some sort of order. It was a change from her normal carefully planned posturing, and Zoro found it far sexier than her usual calculated appeal. She caught him looking, and leaned down to stare him in the eye. "Yes, Zoro?" she purred. It might have been sexy, but Zoro was distracted by all the danger alarms going off in his head. Nami was dangerous and, as much as parts of him wanted him to forget it and let himself be trapped, his sense of self-preservation wasn't going down yet.

"Uh..." He should have said something, but leaning down had let him see her at a different angle, and he saw something he hadn't noticed before. "Put a bra on, you stupid woman." He didn't yelp. Absolutely not. And his voice had its usual cool, deep tone. Most definitely. He looked away hastily, fighting back a blush.

Above him, Nami laughed. It was a rich, genuine laugh, very unlike the one that she gave whenever she managed to swindle some poor, stupid sap. He heard that laugh a lot - this one was much rarer. Still, if it was his embarrassment that brought out that laugh, he'd rather not hear it. She opened a drawer above his head. If he looked up, he'd get an eye-full, he was sure. He kept his eyes resolutely on the opposite wall.

"I don't know what you're so upset about. Everyone else has seen it." Her voice was casual, amused. "Them," she corrected herself, her voice suddenly much more suggestive. 'It' was cold and clinical, and could be ignored. 'Them' demanded attention, especially when mentioned in that tone of voice. Zoro ripped his mind away from that train of thought.

"You probably charged them, didn't you?" he muttered. Her giggle confirmed it. "Crazy witch." The nickname reminded him of something else. "You don't have to stay up for three days. One of us can handle the ship sometimes, you know."

She snorted. "I don't do all this work just so an idiot like you can get us lost in a storm," she told him. "It's safe to look now," she added. A glance back confirmed that she'd put on a bra, and was now propped up against the wall. He was uncomfortably reminded of when she'd been sick, before they'd met Chopper, but her eyes were lively now. "You are never steering the ship."

"Like I would. Get one of the others to do it."

For a wonder, she actually seemed to be considering it. "I guess Nee-san can. I still don't trust any of you idiots." Then, true to form, she switched topics abruptly. "You still haven't asked when they saw."

_What the hell goes through this woman's mind? _Zoro wondered. "Well?"

"Well, what?" Apparently she was having fun being difficult. Damn woman.

"When'd they all see your... you know?" Her expression said she was going to make him say it. "Your breasts." That was the inoffensive term, right? He wasn't going to call them by any of the terms he'd picked up in his days as a pirate hunter, when even a teen who'd never shaved was expected to have spent his time and bounties on the whores that were a bounty hunter's reward to himself. Zoro, who had gone after bounties only when he needed food or a new sword, had picked up the slang so he'd never have to bother picking up a girl.

Nami hummed contentedly, happy that she'd managed to discomfit him once again. "In Alabasta, when we were in the baths. They were peeping, so I showed them." _Most girls, _Zoro thought, _would probably squeal and try to hide from the perverts. _"I wonder where you were?"

"Asleep," he grunted. Well, pretending to be, and working very hard to resist the urge to peep with all the other idiots. Because he'd wanted to look, just like he'd wanted to stare at her only a few minutes ago. But, because he was a man (unlike all those idiot boys that were his nakama), he absolutely would not allow himself to look at Nami that way. She was his nakama, and he adored and respected her in equal measure, just like he did all his other nakama. He would not insult her strength by fussing about and trying to protect her, the way that idiot cook did. And he wouldn't objectify her by staring, the way anyone else would.

Because what Zoro really, really wanted was to shove her against a wall and screw her brains out, until she was screaming his name or maybe just screaming, but he would never forgive himself if he did. So he'd treat her just like everyone else, and focus on his swordsmanship and his self-control so he'd never do anything he'd regret.

Zoro had hunted pirates for a long time before he became one, so he didn't have the romanticized view of them that Luffy, Usopp and Chopper seemed to. He knew that weeks out at sea, full of sexual frustration and a lack of women, could make even the straightest, most rational pirates do stuff they'd normally never consider. Having women on board, in Zoro's opinion, didn't change anything: they weren't here to take care of the men, at least not in that way. They had their own goals, and Zoro respected them enough that he wouldn't dream of getting in their way. So he'd train his mind, and he'd train his body to distract himself while he did, and he'd make it through without turning into a sexually-repressed, freaky-tiki Frenchman (because, as much as Zoro respected Mihawk for his swordsmanship, the guy had some serious issues in other aspects of his life that Zoro had no desire to emulate).

Nami had said something. "What?" he asked.

"What are you thinking about?" she repeated. Her voice had a quiet, hypnotic quality to it: she was sleepy again. He should probably leave and face that damn gunner on his own so that she could get some well-deserved rest. At some point when he was lost in thought she'd lain down again. Although the blanket stopped him seeing, for his own sanity he was going to assume she still had the bra on, even though he knew from Sanji's nightly reports (the man was not half the gentleman he pretended to be, and had a seriously dirty mouth to boot) that she never slept in one. How the cook knew that he didn't know, but he was determined never to find out, in case the temptation to find out those sorts of things for himself became too much.

"Stuff," he muttered, trying to sound nonchalant. His cheeks flushed red anyway.

She made an amused, understanding sound, and one hand reached out of the blanket to settle in his hair. "Stuff, eh? What sort of stuff?" As though she didn't know. But with her fingers moving so soothingly through his hair, he couldn't bring himself to be annoyed at her.

"Stuff stuff." His own voice sounded thick and sleepy to his ears. He relaxed, closing his eyes and enjoying the feeling of her hand in his hair. "S'not important."

"Hmm." She sounded unconvinced, but as long as she didn't pull her hand away, she could think whatever she damn well wanted.

"Nami!" The door banged open - hadn't he locked it? - and Luffy toppled in. "Oh, Zoro. I didn't bring enough for you." His poor, idiot captain sounded worried.

Nami shifted sleepily, half-sitting. She'd been instantly awake when he'd slipped in, but Luffy's loud entrance didn't affect her in the least. He wondered what it meant. "What's that, Luffy?" Her hand was withdrawn from his hair slowly, the feel of it lingering even after it was gone.

"Meat! Sanji said you've been sleeping, and you're really tired, so I brought you some meat." He held up a large tray proudly, his stupid grin so wide that Zoro had to smile too. He looked so pleased with himself, like a puppy that had done a trick perfectly and was waiting to be praised.

The tray was too full for Nami to eat on her own: Luffy had obviously brought some for himself too. Nami patted the blanket next to her. "Thanks, Luffy. Join me?"

"Okay!" He bounded over, somehow managing not to spill anything off the tray as he did, and hopped onto the bed next to Nami. "Look, look! There's dinosaur, and beef, and pork, and sea-king." His wide eyes begged for approval.

Nami gave it to him. "Wow," she said, petting him on the head. "I could never eat all this on my own. Do you want some?"

"Yay!" Zoro felt an irrational stab of jealousy as he watched his captain cuddle up to the navigator, chatting happily and filling his face, while she delicately ate off a plate she'd rescued before Luffy could gobble it too. He knew he shouldn't be jealous - couldn't allow himself jealousy - but it was hard, watching them in an easy comradeship that he couldn't allow himself to have, or even want.

A drumstick was thrust into his line of vision. "Here," Nami told him. He took it, allowing his fingers to brush hers as he did, hating his weakness even as he told himself it was an accident, and that the drumstick might have been dropped if he hadn't.

"What's this for?" he asked warily as he bit into it. Too late to worry now, but it was never wise to let his guard down around her. "You aren't going to charge me, are you?"

The way her face lit up made him think that it hadn't even occurred to her. "I shouldn't, since Luffy brought it. But since he gave it to me, that'll be 1000 belli." She gave him a roguish wink that had 'Special Offer, one day only, just for you' written all over it. This woman really was going to bankrupt the world one day. "You haven't been eating properly," she added.

"How would you know? You've been asleep." Damn, did this woman really know everything? He doubted even the cook had noticed he had less appetite than usual these days.

A wide-eyed, rubbery face thrust itself in front of his own. "Ne, Zoro, why haven't you been eating? Are you sick? Eat meat, you'll get better." Zoro shoved his captain's head away, fighting back a smile. _That idiot. _"Did you get bitten by something in Alabasta? Usopp said you've been weird since then. I bet it was a really cool mystery bug!" He smacked his fist into his other palm, forgetting that he held a big piece of meat. He scrambled to catch it before it could land on the blanket, grinning brightly when he caught it.

Zoro's first thought was, _Damn Usopp. _His next was that the stupid long-nose was right, and it had been since Alabasta. But if it was a disease, he hadn't caught it from a bug. He'd come out of a lovely fight, having finally understood his sensei's words about cutting nothing, and run into the red-haired menace that now tortured him so exquisitely. He'd carried her on his back, and the feel of her strong, perfect body against his had brought the denial he had carefully constructed over all those months crashing down around his ears like the buildings he'd just destroyed. But he couldn't say _that_. "I've just been thinking, since I had a really crazy fight in Alabasta and all." It was mostly true, anyway.

"Oh yeah," Luffy agreed, happy now that they were on firmer ground and he could be an understanding captain. "That guy was super cool. You use swords, but he _was _a sword. Hey, and the dog was a gun! Do you think we'll meet a guy who's a staff like Nami uses?" He looked back and forth between the two of them, waiting for them to reassure him so he could look forward to the adventure.

"Maybe we'll meet someone who's a boat," Nami suggested.

That, as Nami had intended, took Luffy's mind even further away from checking on Zoro and fulfilling his captain-ly duties. "That'd be so coo-ool," Luffy crowed. Zoro, feeling he ought to, gave the navigator a half-hearted look of gratitude. Her return glance was equal parts amused and understanding. "Hey, hey, who would be faster: a merman or a boat-man?"

"It would depend on the type of boat, I think, and the merman. Some of them aren't very fast."

"But the Merry's fast, right? We could outrun a merman."

Nami grinned and ruffled her captain's hair. "Leave it to me."

"But don't go too fast," Luffy added. "'Cause then we won't be able to fight them!"

Even Zoro laughed at that. As he did, he marveled at the skill of his idiot captain: Luffy didn't know what was wrong, and he still managed to make it alright, at least for a time. He had a blind, unyielding faith in his nakama and the world in general, and right now Zoro needed that. Without it, he might have believed that the world was out to get him, and the navigator was someone's idea of a sick joke, and Zoro was its hapless victim.

"You want the last piece, Luffy?" Nami asked, indicating the tray.

He looked torn. "I brought it for you," he said, clearly wanting it.

"I'm full."

"Alright. 'Sank-ya, Nami!" He grabbed up the meat and happily set to work devouring it. She watched him eat, an odd look on her face. Somewhere in that terrifying brain, Zoro knew, little wheels and cogs were turning dizzying circles, working something out.

"Hey Luffy." He looked up from his snack with a grunt, his mouth full of meat. "Never mind." She smiled. "I just thought of something, is all."

Luffy swallowed. "Sure you don't want the last bit? I kinda hogged it all," he said uncertainly, holding out the half-eaten morsel.

"Don't worry, I had lots. There just wasn't as much as you thought there was." Looking relieved, Luffy went back to eating. He really was very considerate, Zoro thought, especially of Nami who, despite his intuitive grasp of most things, he didn't really understand. But then, he added to himself as he watched her, did anyone really understand the crazy witch? But the thought was a fond one because, crazy witch she might be, she was their crazy witch.

With a small shock, Zoro realized he was able to think of the navigator only as a nakama again. He grinned to himself. It was probably only temporary, but it was a start. Luffy had, inexplicably, done it this time. Next time, Zoro would have to change his feelings for himself.

"Hey Zoro," Nami said, still watching Luffy, the odd look still on her face, though veiled. "I need to talk to you a bit later." Her tone said it was private, and serious. Not a good sign. Zoro shoved his thoughts firmly back into 'nakama' as they tried to creep into more dangerous territory. A small, nasty part of his brain was whispering all sorts of wicked things that could come from a private meeting. He firmly told it to shut up. _She's a crazy witch, _he reminded himself. _Our very own crazy witch. But never my crazy witch, no, never mine. _Even considering it, dreaming of it, was over the line. He resolved to work himself into an unthinking exhaustion as soon as he got out of this room.

"Problem?" he asked casually. If he could believe that it was a problem, the sort that required a first mate (rather than _Zoro_) to fix, he'd probably be alright.

"Maybe," was her answer, coupled with a very pointed look at their oblivious captain. Very probably a first mate-type problem, then. Excellent. If he focused on training and first mating, he could make use of this reprieve Luffy had somehow granted him from his own problems. Hopefully, if he did that, he wouldn't end up emulating Mihawk in anything but the caliber of his swordsmanship.


	3. Chaper IV

_This took me way too long to get around to posting. I guess it would have been faster, since the third chapter was written, except that I was inspired by a comment from Galleta... and so, instead of Chapter VI, you get Chapter IV which, at the time of last posting, didn't exist. Confused? Yeah, I know... it's a bit weird. Anyway, this is the reason for the strange chapter names... I can stick chapters in the middle as we go along. Anyway, I know I promised plot in this chapter, but... it's starting to appear, at least. Right? -Adali  
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**Chapter IV **

_In which there is much consideration as to the State of _ _Things_

He'd tumbled into the room, all but slamming the door behind him and snapping the lock down as though his life depended on it. Or so it had seemed to her, but she knew she wasn't the most objective when it came to him. There was something about him that made her aware of the world in ways she normally wasn't - perhaps it was, as she liked to tell herself, simply that he was so much more _there _than most people, real in ways that others weren't.

After all, he trained himself to hear rocks breathing. Maybe that was a little crazy, she admitted to herself, the tempo of her spoon stirring her tea speeding up. She set the spoon down very deliberately and took a sip of the tea. It scorched her lips as it passed them - if she'd been paying attention, she'd have noticed it was still a bit too hot. Her irritation at herself for such a stupid mistake countermanded any calming effect the tea might have had.

She couldn't think rocks breathing as crazy, though, not when she looked for personality and life in the skies and waters around them. She didn't notice she'd picked up the spoon and started stirring the tea again. Probably she'd never noticed rocks breathing because she'd never looked - the breath of rocks had no impact on her navigation around them. But it was an interesting idea - it intrigued her, just as the idea that someone might listen for it intrigued her. Just as the man who listened for it intrigued her.

Listening to something that didn't - that shouldn't - exist made a person more real, she thought. Well, of course everyone in the crew was real - they weren't illusions such as she made with her clima tact - but somehow he was _real_. That was why she was so aware of him, why his muffled footstep and quiet breathing had woken her so much more effectively than Luffy's boisterous yelling and obnoxious entrance. He had a presence that she couldn't ignore.

A presence that _no one _could ignore, she corrected herself firmly. Because this was about him and his breathing rocks, not anything about her that would have made her more aware of him. Because she had no reason to be more aware of him than anyone else. Right.

"You're in denial again, imouto-san," Robin said quietly, taking the place across from her and putting her own teacup - and an extremely large book - on the table between them like a peace offering.

Nami looked up into clear, dark eyes that crinkled at the edges. Sometimes, like when Robin called her 'little sister', she was reminded of Nojiko. But Nojiko, despite everything she had suffered, never had such old, old eyes, filled with secrets and despair. As she so often did, Nami wondered, fleetingly, what the older woman must have seen in her life to have such eyes.

Nojiko's next words would have been 'spill it,' but Robin just continued to watch her, her face impassive, obviously waiting for Nami's response. Nami looked away first. "I'm not," she muttered, sounding petulant even to her own ears.

"Hmm."

Nami's eyes flicked back to the other woman's, but she found herself unable to hold the gaze. "I'm not," she repeated, defensive and false. "And I'm not denying I'm in denial."

Robin chuckled and, despite the heat in her cheeks as she replayed her words, Nami had to smile. "I mean..."

"Of course."

Nami looked down into her teacup, seeing the small leaves drifting across through the darkly clear liquid on the currents created as the tea cooled. She could chart the course of a tealeaf in a teacup, but could make no sense of the wayward wanderings of her own thoughts. It was frustrating but, more, it was disturbing. Maybe she _was _in denial but, if she was, she had no idea what it was she was denying.

"Well, it will sort itself out in time," Robin said, clearly sensing Nami's thoughts.

_In time... _that reminded her. "Nee-san, you've traveled on the Grand Line a lot, haven't you?"

A flicker of something - sadness, anger, loss, pain, hatred - crossed the older woman's face before her perfect control reasserted herself, and it was gone. "The first part, yes."

"Mah... the seven paths... how many have you traveled?" Had anyone ever traveled them all? Nami would - she was determined to. There was no way for her to make her world map or become the greatest navigator to sail the Grand Line if she didn't. She would chart the wonders of the Grand Line and conquer them all. It was a promise she had made with Luffy from the very first: she would rule the ocean currents, and he the people who sailed them. It was their dream.

Robin swirled her tea gently, then took a sip. Had Nami not been watching her very closely, looking for some clue to the other woman's thoughts, she would have missed the slight curl of the lip that told her Robin's tea had gone cold. "A difficult question, Navigator-san." There was a teasing note when she said the name. "I've crossed them all, at one point or another. But I've only ever followed two for any length of time."

"This one?"

"Not this one."

Nami stared into her teacup, fighting to keep her face blank. Tealeaves swirled, drifted, following gentle, deceptive currents that would never lead them anywhere; sailed endlessly round in circles, with neither direction nor hope of any journey but that final one down the galley sink to be lost in a far larger ocean. It was a terrible, bleak concept. Sometimes Nami felt like she was steering one of those tealeaves.

"Well, Alabasta is a large country with a lot of dealings with the rest of the world. Others will have traveled this path before us." Robin stood, collecting her book and cup. "It will work itself out, imouto-san." She offered Nami a smile that was at once hopeful and sad as she emptied her cup down the drain.

"Thanks, Nee-san," Nami said, fiddling with the handle of her cup as she watched the older woman leave. Only when the galley door was firmly closed behind her did Nami allow herself to crumble, her head pillowed in her folded arms. It was wrong, all wrong. There was supposed to be danger and adventure and sure, even difficulty, but they'd always come through in the end. But something had happened. Had she taken a wrong turn? Did the storm blow them even further off course than she had thought? Or was it simply that they had never been meant to succeed?

With a scream of frustration, she slammed her fist into the table. Only when she pulled it back to pound again did she feel a sharp pain in her hand and feel the wet drops sliding across her skin. She raised her head. The delicate teacup lay smashed on the table, surrounded by a seeping puddle of cold tea.

"Ah?" A hand came from behind her and grabbed her wrist. The contact shocked her like lightning. How had she not heard him come in? She leaned back and looked up into Zoro's face. It seemed impossible that she could have missed him: his presence filled her senses, drawing her attention to him like filings to a magnet. "The crap cook is going to be upset about that cup."

He sat in the chair beside her, not letting go of her wrist. He moved slowly, gently, as he turned over her injured hand. She winced - though he didn't even blink - when she saw the shard of glazed porcelain sticking out of her skin, its knife-like edge buried deep in the side of her hand. "I'm fine," she muttered darkly, trying to pull her hand away. His grip remained gentle, but iron-firm.

"Hn." With a swift motion he pulled the shard out and tossed it across the room into the trash. He stood, and gave her arm a soft, yet insistent, tug. Unwilling to follow, yet unable to resist, she followed him to the sink and let him put her hand under the faucet. She hissed as a stream of cold water hit the cut. He inspected it as it was washed and then, apparently satisfied with what he found, he swiftly bandaged it with a clean napkin.

Medically and aesthetically speaking, it was a piss-poor job. The bandage was haphazard, and cold water insufficient to prevent infection. If this was how he did first aid, no wonder he had so many scars. All the same, she appreciated it, and gently cradled the hand as she returned to the table.

"Can't we go outside, woman?" Zoro sounded annoyed. He was probably trying to appear tough now to make up for his earlier kindness. That would be just like him. "Leave it for that damn fruity chef to clean up."

She could have objected to any part of that speech: how he'd addressed her so rudely; how he'd insulted Sanji; how he was being difficult for its own sake. Instead, she silently led him outside and up the stairs to the mikan grove. Inside, safe from the prying eyes and ears of their crewmates - she loved them, but most of them had no sense of the word 'privacy' - she sat and looked up, waiting for him to do the same.

He looked, from this vantage, torn, as though he couldn't decide if he should sit with her or insist on another change of location or storm away from her altogether.

"Zooooro!" Usopp's voice drifted through the branches. "Hey, Zoro..." Nami thought she saw something unnervingly close to panic as the swordsman dropped down to sit beside her. His eyes were fierce, forbidding her from revealing his location. "Oh, hey, there's someone in the mikan grove..."

It was almost comical how wide Zoro's eyes got. He wasn't quite pleading, but she took pity on him anyway. "Get away from my trees!" she snapped. The sound of Usopp's approach through the branches stopped, then rapidly reversed to get the hell away from the mikans and their guardian.

Of course, since he was Zoro, he wouldn't say 'thank-you', even though this was the second time today she'd saved him from the gunner. His posture said it all, though. He slumped next to her, not touching but close enough that she could feel the heat he radiated. "I checked what you were asking about," he muttered.

"And?"

"You were right." The words were grudging, as though they had been torn from him - he was unwilling to say those words, whatever the reason. He really was strange sometimes, being more concerned by things like this than things that were actually important. But, then again, he was Zoro: normal reasoning didn't apply for a bonehead like him.

That was all she'd been looking for, really: that simple confirmation of her suspicions. All it would have taken was a nod as they passed on the deck. There was no need for all this secrecy, this clandestine meeting as though they had something to hide. Probably if they had stood in the middle of the deck and had a shouted conversation none of the blockheads in this crew would have thought anything of what they said, whereas if this conversation in the bushes were discovered, it would be blown far out of proportion. Really, her crewmates could be so unreasonable at times.

"Thank you," she muttered. He was a hard person to thank - his attitude was more likely to make her indignant than grateful. But he'd done her a favor, checking on this for her, so it would be wrong not to thank him, even if thanks wasn't necessary between them.

He lay back on the rough decking between the trees and grunted. Was he just accepting her thanks, or responding in kind for her help in dealing with Usopp? She couldn't have said.

It was truly amazing, she thought as she watched him close his eyes and relax, that he could hide from the sharpshooter at all. Nami, for her part, could always find the swordsman. It didn't matter where he was on the ship: she could feel his presence and know exactly where he was. She thought she might have been able to find Sanji and Luffy too, but she'd never had an opportunity to find out: they were both so obnoxious (in their own way) that they couldn't stay hidden for long.

His fighting aura was tempered, but Zoro wasn't sleeping yet. "This mean we're in trouble, then?" he asked, his eyes still closed. Nami ruthlessly crushed the urge to reach out and run her fingers through the soft spikes of his hair. Instead she looked up at the sky, watching as the cloudless blue arc passed overhead although it seemed, with nothing to mark its passage, as though they weren't moving at all.

Time passed. Hidden in the mikan grove, surrounded by shadows and unable to see the sun, Nami couldn't have said how much. The quiet murmur of the rest of the crew going about their business on the ship gave her no clue. It was tranquil and calm, so that she could almost be fooled into believing there might not be a death sentence hanging over their heads and an invisible clock counting down the hours until it caught up with them.

"Ne, Zoro," she said, breaking the silence. Somehow it didn't even occur to her that he might be asleep. He grunted - not a sleeping grunt, but an I'm-awake-but-don't-expect-much grunt. "You remember what it's like to be hungry?" She did. She'd been small then, and Bellemere had done her best to keep her daughters from feeling the weight of their poverty, but still she could remember the gnawing pain of an empty stomach and the hopelessness of knowing there was nothing coming to fill it.

"Un." Long acquaintance told her it was an affirmative grunt, but a reluctant one. He, too, did not like to remember time spent on the edge of starvation. Zoro opened his eyes, just for a second, the rolled over and put his head in her lap. His trained muscles made the movement smooth and natural, but it was still somehow awkward. Such a gesture was not usual for Zoro. She wondered if it was to comfort her, or himself. She let herself rest her bandaged hand in his hair, telling herself there wasn't anything wrong with it and, besides, she wasn't really touching him - the bandage got in the way. The green strands tickled her fingers like soft grass. How long had it been since they'd seen land? And, more importantly, how long until they saw it again? If they ever did.

"That dumbass is gonna pay for this," Zoro muttered into her hip. "Stupid prideful jerk." He was right to be angry; Nami found that she was, too. Did Sanji not trust his nakama, that he couldn't come to them with this? She understood him wanting to deal with things on his own - the crew had a strict, if implicit, policy of non-interference in each others' fights - but this was not a fight. This was not about Sanji, or his pride, or chivalrous ways. This was about the crew and their survival, and he should have damn well known better than to try and take this on himself and hide it from them.

Because Sanji couldn't fight this. He was physically strong - the third strongest in the crew, she thought, whatever the bounties implied, although he and Zoro were fairly evenly matched in their sparring. That he could hold on to his chivalry, despite all the difficulties it brought him, suggested he had a strong heart and will as well. But Sanji, she thought, had strength like badly-tempered steel: there was strength, and flexibility, but it was brittle still, and there was no knowing what would cause him to break. She hoped - she knew - he would overcome that. But not now. Now was not the time.

Zoro shifted a little, making himself more comfortable (although a man who slept more often on the deck than in a bed or hammock could not be that concerned about comfort). Since he couldn't see - she liked that he thought of her as a crazy witch, and didn't want to ruin that image - she smiled down at him. Zoro was strong too, but more like a rock than steel. He was strong and immovable, but he could be worn down, under time and wind and water. And he would crumble, a little here and a little there, until the day came when he could take it no more, and with a great, earth-rending crack he split down the middle. She hoped that day would never come. She hoped instead that he would be worn away, piece by piece, until he was sand. Then, like the dunes in the desert, no matter how the wind howled or the rain pounded him, he would remain forever strong and unchanging.

Then he'd be a bit more like Luffy. Luffy's body was rubber but so, in his essence, was he. No matter what one did to Luffy, no matter the hardships he faced, he would always return, bright and strong and as wonderfully full of life as before. That, she thought, was Luffy's true strength, not his punch or his unbreakable body.

_Poetic_, she thought with a wry twist of her lips. She'd been having more such thoughts these last few months, as she finally left behind Arlong's influence and could truly be herself. No reason to let it get to her, though. She could continue to be as practical (and fashionable) as ever, and allow herself to indulge these strange, poetic thoughts when no one need be the wiser.

"Ah!" Perhaps she'd have to do something about these poetic thoughts. They distracted her, so she hadn't heard Usopp making his way through the mikan grove. "I found you." She didn't think he'd meant to say that out loud, not with his eyes so fixed on Zoro. Likely he hadn't even noticed her presence, despite how the swordsman was using her legs as a pillow.

Though she couldn't see any change in Zoro, she felt him tense. His fighting aura and powerful presence were back full force, his attention fixed on Usopp as though facing an enemy. She wondered how the sharpshooter was unable to sense the change in him when it seemed so clear to her that she would have noticed it from the other end of the ship.

"Were you looking for me?" she asked Usopp in a sweet, innocent voice. She knew he hadn't been - could feel it when he finally registered her presence there. She felt Zoro relax, just a little, and felt warmed to think that he was putting his trust in her. _But he really should face up to this himself one day, _she thought.

Usopp grinned his wide, liar's grin. "H-hi Nami! I was just going to move some stuff from the - ah - the anchor room, and Z-zoro said, said he'd help me, but I see he's asleep, so I'll be going!" He giggled nervously - actually _giggled_, like a child who's been caught with their hand in the cookie jar and knows there's no escape. "S-sorry to disturb, I mean, bother you... you guys..."

"Usopp." She said his name quietly, firmly, punching through his babbling. Zoro, feigning sleep in her lap, had tensed as the gunner talked, obviously angry that the boy would lie about _him_. "You're strong, ne? Do you're best." She offered him a sweet smile edged with shark teeth and razor blades, a warning and a threat and an insinuation all at once. "I'm sure you can manage without Zoro." She was privately a bit aghast at herself for acting - just a little - like a possessive harpy who'd caught someone trying to poach her man. Worse, Zoro was a witness. She could feel him radiating smugness and contentment from his place in her lap. If he'd been a cat - a very big, dangerous cat like, say, a tiger - she swore he would have been purring. It was really too much to stand.

She stood quickly, disentangling herself from the swordsman who could no longer feign sleep. "On second thought, he's all yours. Use him for whatever you need." She stormed out of the mikan grove, angry for a reason she couldn't place. Out on the deck, she paused only long enough to throw her napkin-bandage into the sea before storming off to find Chopper to take care of it properly.


	4. Chapter VI

_An update in a timely fashion? What is this? This is one of those chapters that was really easy and fun to write... possibly because of the characters, but more likely because of the quasi-crack. No, _crack_ is too strong... Kool-aid with too much sugar in it? Buckets too much sugar? There's an obvious play off Shrek herein, but it's not a big deal if you haven't seen it: everything still works just fine._

_I'm sure I said somewhere that I was going to focus on this fic, but I was suddenly inspired to start another: _All Their Sins_, a Zoro/Nami/Sanji multi-chapter fic. I really need to fix this attention span of mine. Or not, since it means I write fics instead of doing homework. -Adali_**  
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**Chapter VI **

_In which figurative speech is abused _

On the Grand Line, an ocean fraught with peril where a single mistake could be deadly, Sanji was a failure. He had come to this realization two days before, when he had casually asked the brilliant Nami-san when they would reach the next island. The way her exquisite mouth had tightened and her luminous eyes narrowed told him everything he had needed to know. His current position on the ship (whatever it actually was) aside, Sanji had been recruited to the Strawhat pirates for one purpose: to ensure the crew stayed properly fed as they traveled the world's great oceans. In this, Sanji had failed.

The first thing Sanji had done when he set foot on the Going Merry, back in East Blue, was check the galley and hold to see how much storage room he would have. He'd learned about provisioning a ship in North Blue, back in his days before the Baratie. He had learned still more on his first supply run for Zeff, when he had brought back so much fruit some of it would spoil and had no room for anything else. Zeff had kicked him through a wall for that one, and refused to send him out on another run for _years_.

This ship, now, carried no cargo beyond its small crew and what they needed to keep themselves afloat. He should have had plenty of room to stock provisions, even taking into account how the captain and first mate each ate enough for three (elephants, that was).

Easy living under Nami-san's gentle direction had softened him over time, and he'd begun to indulge himself by loading the ship with good food, rather than the healthy yet space-saving foods he had originally brought on-board. There had always been plenty of food left by the time they made it to the next island, where they could gather or hunt food even if they couldn't buy it.

It was the Grand Line's greatest trick. It eased sailors into a false sense of security, letting them think they had figured out its tricks. Then, when their guard was down, they were hit with the full fury of this insane ocean. And Sanji, even knowing this, had fallen for it.

Confident in his skills and that of their navigator, he had not stocked the ship properly. He had brought on extra food for Nami-san's birthday feast, focusing on the delights the feast promised rather than the risk that they might not see land again for a while.

Even still, he reminded himself, he had made sure they had enough food for almost three weeks, even at the rate that the crew ate. Just because they had always found an island within two weeks at sea, he had naively assumed they would again. Now the three week mark was looming, and there was no hint of any island to come in the next few days.

A cold wind, smelling of citrus and salt, cut through Sanji's jacket. He took another drag of his cigarette, wishing his nerves were at the point where they could still be calmed by the nicotine. From below deck he could hear Luffy's enthusiastic snores, almost drowning out Usopp's thin nasal ones. It sounded like Chopper was talking in his sleep again. There was a light on in the women's cabin; no doubt Robin-chan was still up reading.

"It's amazing you can still taste anything," a gruff voice grumbled behind him.

He didn't bother turning to look for the source of the voice. For an obnoxious oaf, Zoro could move quietly when he wanted. No doubt the man was sitting against the wall behind him, his katana propped beside him. "What's that supposed to mean?" He wasn't in the mood for an argument, although he would welcome a fight right now.

"Nicotine kills your taste buds, doesn't it?" His tone said it was something he might have heard somewhere once, but now he wasn't sure if he hadn't just made it up.

"So?"

The swordsman was quiet for a moment, obviously gauging how far he could push Sanji just now. "You're up to almost a pack a day. Even your endless supply of cigarettes will run out at this rate."

_Stupid bastard had to bring that up, didn't he? _Sanji thought with a snarl as he turned, launching a kick towards the other man's head. Zoro's mystified look quickly changed to one of concentration as he worked to keep Sanji's attacks off. _Idiot marimo can't think and fight at the same time. Figures._

Sharp steps on the deck froze both combatants in their places. Sanji had one leg up, coiled to throw a skull-shattering kick at the shitty marimo's thick head. Zoro had two swords out, one raised to block the impending kick. They made a tense tableau, but Sanji was afraid to disturb it in case moving upset the woman glaring at them both.

"Weapons down right now," Nami snapped. Leg and swords were lowered, the combatants keeping careful eyes on each other and Nami. The navigator's eyes glittered against the darkness of the night as she studied them. "In the galley. Now." She grabbed Zoro by the ear as he tried to slink away. No doubt the oaf was hoping to take a nap rather than weather the tirade that was in store for the two of them. "That includes you, bastard."

To Sanji's gentlemanly ear, which had developed a new filter during his association with the noble and pure Nami-san, it came across as, "There's something bothering me. I'd like to chat to the two of you about it over some tea and biscuits. If you would please follow me to the galley? You too, Zoro." He wasn't entire sure where she'd fit it in, but somewhere in there she might have mentioned how dashing Sanji looked tonight, and made a derogatory comment about the shitty swordsman which, being a gentleman, Sanji would pretend she hadn't said.

Despite the rather blatant editing, Sanji didn't find himself overly surprised that Zoro had been included in the conference. Whatever Nami-san wanted to discuss was obviously very important, so it was natural that the shithead join them. Sanji sometimes liked to think of the three of them as the first three to join the crew, even if he knew it wasn't true. Usopp had joined before him, and Nami had (debatably) joined after he had.

However they thought of themselves, they were the three that ran the floating nut house called the Going Merry. They were the first mate, the navigator, and the cook; the ones who took their idiot captain's hair-brained schemes and made them work. Or, at least, any scheme that involved getting from A to B alive, intact, and without their bellies kissing their backbones. The really strange ones, like making Merry's figurehead more ergonomically shaped with regards to the captain's rear, they left for Usopp and Chopper to figure out.

The kitchen was bright and warm after the cool dark of the night. Although he had lived at Baratie for far longer than he had on the Going Merry, this kitchen felt more comfortable than the world-class one at Baratie ever had. If he'd been pressed for a reason, Sanji might have said that it was because this was _his _kitchen, while the one at Baratie, while splendid, belonged indisputably to Zeff. That Zeff's was bigger, fancier, and didn't need to have a padlock on the fridge, didn't mean it was better. Standing in his kitchen now, brewing tea, Sanji couldn't help but feel that, however badly he had failed, and however awful Nami-san's problem, things might just work themselves out.

"You aren't going to drop off to sleep?" Nami teased Zoro gently.

The bastard shouldn't have glared at the lovely Nami-san to the point where Sanji could practically _hear _the expression. "Why would I?"

"Well, there was this crew meeting one time…" Nami said innocently, as though it had been just once and not every time. "Oh, and that last attack by the marines…" Sanji turned in time to see an expression that, while grotesque, was undeniably Zoro childishly sticking his tongue out at Nami-san.

"Stupid bastard, don't you dare treat Nami-san like that." He pulled his kick at the last minute, remembering almost too late that this wasn't the time to be fighting. He set the tea in front of Nami instead, bowing gently as though presenting a peace offering. Which, if he were to be honest with himself, he was. Nami-san had enough troubles without the shithead adding any more for her.

Sanji poured three cups and passed them around. The shitty swordsman made a face at his, as he did every time Sanji brought out the good china. Sanji would have been offended if he thought Zoro was impugning his taste, but the dislike for the cups ran deeper. The shithead was one of those people who didn't understand beauty for its own sake, and thought delicate, pretty things pointless frippery. Add to that the fact that the only time he was ever given one to drink from was when there was a major problem for the three of them to deal with, and it was no wonder Zoro made a face at the sight of the elegant teacup.

"What did you want to talk about, Nami-san?" Sanji asked, as neutrally as he could, once he was finished serving the tea. Tea was important for these discussions - it calmed tempers and lifted spirits, and gods knew they needed at times like this.

Nami-san wrapped her hands around her cup, but didn't drink. "How long do we have, Sanji-kun?"

Sanji felt himself go cold. She had found out. How? It wasn't something he should have kept from her, but he hadn't wanted her to worry. Being a cause of worry for Nami-san was, to him, one of the greatest crimes he could commit.

"Don't look like that, crap cook," Zoro said in a way that was, for him, kind. "You're up to a pack a day and you _still _look like death walking. Maybe it's because you're smoking so much," he added.

Nami-san shrugged elegantly. "After you asked how far we were from land, I had the bastard check the hold. Sanji-kun, _how long have we got_?"

He took a sip of his tea to calm himself. _I need a smoke_, he thought distractedly. He had failed his nakama, then he had lied to them, and now they had found out. _Worry about it later_, he ordered himself. "A while," he said evasively.

"Sanji-kun," Nami-san said sternly.

"You screwed up," Zoro growled from his other side. "Get over it before you get us all damn well killed."

" I. Didn't. Screw. Up." Even if he had - very definitely had - there was no way he was going to admit it to the bastard.

"Fine," Nami snapped. "You didn't screw up, and you didn't answer my question." There was steel in her voice far scarier than what the swordsman carried at his hip.

"Three days."

"_Three days?_"

Sanji stared into his tea cup. "Five if Luffy and shithead give up their snacks. A week if everyone goes to three-quarter rations, or a day more than that if we go to half."

"Three days," Nami repeated quietly. Sanji wanted to remind her that, really, they had more than twice that. It didn't seem like the time.

"Three-quarter rations you said, crap cook? What's that look like?"

"No seconds."

Zoro's mouth twisted. "That's hardly starving."

It sounded like Nami kicked him under the table, but the shitty marimo didn't flinch. "How many portions do you eat at each meal?" she demanded.

"I don't know. Three, maybe four. Five after training." He paused. "Shit." He swallowed his tea like it was the rough alcohol he normally drank, eyes narrowing a little as it burned his throat. "Seven days, Nami. Is it enough?"

"What about fishing?" Nami asked instead of answering. "A couple of big fish…"

Sanji shrugged. "Another meal each, maybe."

"Zoro?"

The swordsman's jaw-cracking yawn was very pointed. "Tomorrow morning."

"Maybe you won't get lost then."

"We should send him out now, Nami-san. With less mouths to feed, we'll last much longer." Sanji managed a weak smile at his sorry attempt at a joke.

"Throw you overboard, maybe," Zoro shot back. "Any idiot can do your job around here. Cook up some grub, harass the women…" He knelt dramatically at Nami's feet, gathering her hands in his enormous ones. "O radiant Nami-san," he intoned in a passable imitation of Sanji's voice. Nami's eyes were very wide. "Let me prove my love by serving you my heart with saw-tayed onions and pickled asparagus, even if you know it's all bullshit because I'm as gay as…"

They never got to hear Zoro's attempt at a simile because Sanji's foot connecting with his head cut off the rest of the words. It was a kick that would have crushed most people's skulls, but the shitty rocks-for-brains only grunted and rubbed his head in annoyance. "What was that for, dartboard-brow?" he asked, standing in preparation for a fight.

"Shitty bastard, you…"

"Stuff it, Sanji," Nami gasped out before breaking into uncontrollable giggles. After a minute, holding her side and wiping tears from her eyes, she offered the dumbfounded Sanji a big grin. "What are you getting so offended for? You should be used to it. Practically everyone who meets you thinks you are."

Sanji felt his eyes widen. _It can't be true. _He went to his knees in front of Nami, desperately trying to show her his sincerity. "Nami-san, you know I'm not gay, don't you?" he asked.

His heart felt like it would explode when she cupped his cheek with one hand. "It's nothing to be ashamed of, San-chan," she told him gently. "I don't mind, I promise. In fact, it's kind of hot."

Sanji hardly had time to register the use of the pet name before Nami's gentle hand was replaced by Zoro's calloused one. He lifted Sanji's chin so that, by bending down, he could stare him in the eye. "Well, San-chan?"

The cook fell over backwards in his rush to get away from the swordsman. He'd been sailing for months with Zoro, and never had any idea that the other man might be… _Don't think about it, don't think about it._ He felt inexplicably dirty.

Zoro stood easily and sauntered to behind Nami's chair. Folding his arms across her shoulders and rested his chin on her hair, he watched the blond sprawled on the floor. "You might have been wrong, crazy witch," he said easily.

Nami's shrug was blocked by the weight of Zoro's arms. "A girl can dream, can't she?" She twisted her head to look up at Zoro. "Why do you think the women in all the towns enjoy talking to him so much?"

"Flattery?" he hazarded.

"Because they think they've finally found a man who understands women," Nami explained.

"Thank you, Nami-san…"

"I meant because he's gay," she clarified. Sanji collapsed back to the floor. If felt like the full weight of the world's injustice had settled itself on his chest. How many women had only talked to him because of a misconception?

"Wouldn't a gay guy be, I don't know, more manly?" Zoro asked. _Trust shit-for-brains not to know about these things._

"Eh? What are you talking about?"

"I mean, if girls are too weak for him, he's got to be really strong, right?"

Nami slapped a hand to her forehead in amazement at the marimo's idiot logic. "What if he's really weak, so he thinks he needs a man to protect him?" _Nami-san is so brilliant, she can explain anything so even that idiot can understand._ "And who said women are weak?"

Zoro rubbed his cheek against hers smugly. "The gorgeous Nami-san is a tower of strength and… uh… beauty?" he offered, his imitation of Sanji failing with his imagination. He'd probably pushed the limit of his intelligence using a word like 'gorgeous'.

Nami pushed him away, rubbing her very red cheek in annoyance. "You need a shave. And when was the last time you showered?" She wrinkled her nose.

"I went swimming yesterday."

"That's not a shower," Sanji snapped. The shithead had the gall not only to assault the luminous Nami-san, but to make fun of Sanji while he did. _I would have kicked him through a wall by now, _the cook assured himself, _but I don't want to damage the ship._

"It's your stupid girly habits that make everyone think you're gay, crap cook," Zoro drawled. It was a remarkable insight for a dumb ox like him.

"I think we've tortured him enough." Nami's mouth twitched in amusement.

"Even if it's all true," the swordsman muttered rebelliously, but didn't argue further.

Sanji was stunned. The pair of them had deliberately set out to tease and embarrass him? It had worked (as anything orchestrated by the wonderfully clever Nami-san would), but he could hardly believe that his sweet Nami-san would do something so cruel (even if she was probably right to do so, his inner gentleman added loyally). "Why, Nami-san?"

"You don't think you deserve at least a little retribution?" Nami asked. "Even after you kept something so important from us?"

"I didn't want you to worry," Sanji muttered. He would accept punishment for his crimes from Nami-san without complaint, but it rankled that the shithead had been in on it.

Zoro cuffed him across the back of the head. "For something like that, we want you to worry us." Sanji patted his hair back into place, glaring at the swordsman. _Stupid shithead marimo thinks he's so funny…_ "If that's everything, I'm going to back to sleep," he announced. "Crap cook, crazy witch," he added, nodding to them by way of good-night.

"He's a strange guy, isn't he?" Nami asked after the door had closed, a strange smile on her face.

"He's an idiot, Nami-san," Sanji told her firmly.

"He's got a lot of hidden layers."

Sanji rolled his eyes. "He's an oaf."

"Like a, a…"

"An ogre."

Nami pretended not to hear. "An onion." She seemed so pleased with her metaphor that Sanji didn't have the heart to point out that while, yes, onions had layers, all the layers tended to be pretty much the same. They had plenty of redeeming qualities - cooked properly with the correct dish, there were few things he liked better than onions - but having hidden depths was not something onions were generally known for.

Nami frowned at him. "You don't agree."

"It's not that I don't think you're absolutely right in every regard," Sanji assured her, "it's just that…"

"You don't think I'm quite as right as I could be," Nami finished.

"Well…" Sanji took a sip of his tea. "Maybe?" he offered. "I'm sure you're right to call him an onion. It's just that onion layers aren't all that different from each other. Speaking as a chef, I mean."

"Are you suggesting he's more like a parfait? Sweet and creamy and cool, with hidden fruity layers?"

"Absolutely not." The thought was horrifying.

Nami smiled. "It does seem more like you, doesn't it?" she teased. Sanji felt his face flame red. _Why does she keep suggesting I'm gay all of a sudden?_ "But look… you can't put an onion with ice cream, right?"

"I probably could, if you really wanted me to…" It would be a challenge, certainly. The flavors were completely incompatible. _But what an achievement it would be!_

Nami waved a dismissive hand. "My point, if you can look at it as a metaphor instead of a challenge to your skills, is that onions have to be taken in the right context."

"You mean the shithead looks different if you remember he's a stupid shitty marimo?" He'd always known Nami-san could think circles around him, but normally she made sure he could at least follow her line of reasoning. She was brilliant, but also considerate that way.

"Maybe 'context' wasn't right. You eat onions with meat, or vegetables, or…"

"Mushrooms, yes, or pastas…"

"Anyway," Nami cut him off before he could follow that line of thinking too far in the wrong direction. "They taste a bit different with each. So Zoro's a bit different depending on the situation and who's around."

_Fair enough. _She was probably right - actually right, that was, not just automatically right - although he couldn't think of an example. "So…"

"Haven't you noticed?" She sounded irritated. "How many words did Zoro say here tonight?" Sanji blinked at her. _What? _"Exactly. He was using full _sentences_. How often does he do that? And how much did he swear?" It could have been less than normal; Sanji wasn't in the habit of counting.

"Sanji-kun, he _teased _you."

"So?" The embarrassment returned full force, flaming brightly in Sanji's cheeks. He didn't think he'd ever live this one down. "He's done it before."

"When?"

"I don't remember. You should know, you were there. Nami-san," he added belatedly. _I can't believe I was almost rude to Nami-san! What's wrong with me?_

Rather than offended, Nami looked triumphant. "Exactly. You and I were there, but no one else was. He's different around us. More open."

_Doesn't matter how much he opens up, he's still a shithead underneath_, Sanji thought. Out loud, he only said, "Hence the layers?"

"Hence the layers."

"Is 'layers' really right, though? It's like the whole onion thing…"

Nami rolled her eyes. "What about 'flavors', then?" She leaned closer, inspecting him. "What would you have thought if I told you Zoro had many flavors?"

Sanji felt an irrational blush stealing its way across his cheeks for the umpteenth time that night. No matter how suggestively she said those words, he shouldn't react this way.

"You're such a pervert, San-chan," Nami told him fondly as she let herself out of the galley. "Goodnight."

_Flavors… oh god. _


	5. Chapter X

Almost 6500 words: this chapter is monstrously long. It was also the second one I wrote, so if I've missed something in my editing (repetitions, omissions, grievous discrepancies between this and anything previous) please do let me know, at the very least so I can clear up any confusion it may cause. Anyway, I've been kind of focussed on All Their Sins lately and I am, unfortunately, not so good at multi-tasking. As my schoolwork shows. Oh well, this is more fun. - Adali

* * *

**Chapter X**

_In which there is hormone-driven foolishness_

It was a tiny island, a pathetic slip of rock standing valiantly above the icy, crashing waves. There were some rocks and a scattering of a few dozen trees under drifting snow; no animals, not even birds, called this scrap of land home.

"Wo-hoa!" Luffy cried, giving the exclamation two syllables more than it rightfully deserved. "Look at that tiny island. I bet I can jump all the way across it."

"It's so small," Chopper agreed, as though this was something to be excited about.

Leaning over the railing, Usopp used his hand to shade his eyes as he assumed the pose of a valiant explorer discovering a new land. It would have looked better if there was a stiff breeze, carrying with it the smells of exotic places, or if the sun had chosen that moment to break through the clouds. Unfortunately for Usopp's sense of the dramatic, the wind remained slight and erratic, and the sunlight watery through the heavy, snow-filled clouds that stretched towards the horizon. "Hah, that island is so small, I could spit across it. I'm the world champion at spitting, you know."

"Really?"

"Did I ever tell you about the time I won a spitting contest, and thereby saved a princess and her kingdom, no, two kingdoms, from the evil tyranny of her wicked step-uncle?"

Nami watched her three excited nakama from her place in the doorway, while behind her Sanji and Zoro steered the ship and argued. "It's so small even you can't get lost, shithead," Sanji told the other man.

"You're at home with small things, aren't you?" Zoro sneered back. "Seeing as your…" Sanji's foot connecting solidly with his jaw stopped him from finishing.

"Don't you dare be so crude in front of Nami-san," Sanji admonished angrily. Since they couldn't see, Nami allowed herself to roll her eyes. Sanji really was too overprotective sometimes. As though she hadn't heard worse many times. Sometimes it wasn't even the swordsman saying it.

She couldn't quite make out what more was being said behind her, until she heard, "Says the guy that needs to carry three swords to compensate." The arguing had gone on long enough, she decided. Once they started insulting each other's masculinity, those two wouldn't be satisfied until they'd destroyed each other and a good portion of the ship in a show of macho strength.

They were so absorbed in their bickering that they didn't notice her turn and approach them. At least, not until she had punched them both soundly in the head. "If you're quite finished showing off for each other," she snapped. "Pay attention to what you're doing."

"Hai, Nami-san!" Sanji caroled, anger forgotten for the moment as he tried to win back her approval.

"Crazy witch," Zoro groused, rubbing the side of his head as though she had done injury to his stupid, rock-solid skull. Even though she knew it was just his way, she was sorely tempted to punch him again for being so insufferably _Zoro_.

Sanji left the tiller to slouch towards the door and take up a relaxed slouch against the doorframe. Cupping his hands against the fitful breezes, he lit a cigarette with the easy nonchalance that told Nami he was worried. "What's wrong, Sanji-kun?" she asked. Something seemed to have just caught the cook's attention, and it concerned him enough that he forgot to get mad at Zoro for being rude to Nami.

"I hope it doesn't take too long for the log to set here," he said, his eyes on their three nakama gamboling around the foredeck. "If we don't find somewhere where we can get proper food soon…"

He didn't need to finish the thought for Nami to understand. She wasn't sure what had happened to Sanji to make him so afraid of starvation, but she could plainly see the prospect terrified him. It terrified her too, if it came to that. She could remember going hungry when she was young. They had been nearly out of food, and Bellemere had been too proud to ask anyone for help. Instead, she had given her portions to Nami and Nojiko, insisting she wasn't hungry. It had taken Gen-san and the doctor hours to convince her to let them help, yielding only when they told her what might happen to the girls if she fell sick.

Nami remembered being hungry then, although the memory was probably worse than the reality had been. Still, the idea of starving to death, of watching her nakama slowly dwindle and fade away, colored by the memory of that time, terrifying her.

"We'll make it through," she told him, trying to reassure herself at the same time. Behind her, Zoro grunted his agreement, and Nami could have hugged him. Zoro kept his promises: if he said they would be alright, they would be.

"Nothing to do, no idea how long the log will take to set, no food…" Nami grumbled as she inspected her map critically. The thing about the Grand Line, she'd noticed, was that islands tended to clump together, with large sections of ocean in between those clumps. They had come to rely on that pattern since the Going Merry, even stocked to the rafters, would only just get them across the largest breaks with enough food.

She stared at the dot she had penciled in, marking their current position. This was the longest stretch of open water they had crossed, but Nami wasn't ready to believe that they were at the next clump just yet. The first island in a set almost always had a bustling market, or at least a healthy jungle from which to scavenge food, since the Strawhats were far from alone in being hungry for fresh food after a long time at sea. This island was just too insignificant.

With a sigh, Nami leaned back in her chair and looked around the cabin at her nakama. Chopper and Usopp were huddled in one corner, talking quietly, no doubt scaring each other silly with made-up hear-say of what happened when a crew went too long without food. Usopp would probably fit princesses and Sea Kings into the scenario somehow. It was endearingly consistent of him.

Zoro was asleep against one wall, his katana in his lap. He looked relaxed, but Nami had known him a long time - sometimes, when he was being especially frustrating, it really felt like forever - and she felt instinctively that the swordsman was not as at ease as he seemed. Perhaps it was the way one hand rested against the three sheathed katana, when normally he would have them propped to one side, within easy reach but not actually touching them. Watching him hold them now was like seeing a little boy with a teddy bear. It was oddly cute, but also worrying, to see him like this.

Sanji lounged against the wall opposite Zoro. His hands kept twitching towards his cigarettes, despite Nami's firm rule about not smoking in the cabins, until he stuffed them in his pockets to hide the nervous action. He was glaring moodily through his bangs at Zoro, as though offended by the other man's relaxed posture. Of them all, Nami thought he was the most out of character just then. Normally, Sanji would be making light of the situation, or at least showing off some macho bravado, no matter how worried he was. His silence concerned her as much as Zoro's compulsive grip on his swords.

Robin didn't look worried at all. Of course she knew about their situation, perhaps understood it better than anyone but Sanji, and yet she still maintained the same relaxed posture she always did.

Nami looked down from scrutinizing her companions and met the worried eyes of the final member of their crew. Her darling captain really was so clueless, sometimes, she thought. Although they'd explained it to him a couple of times, Nami wasn't sure he completely understood their situation. On the other hand, the boy was a bit like a weathervane in how he was attuned to his crew: he might not understand exactly what was upsetting them, but he knew they were upset. He really did have an amazing gift for seeing what was in people's hearts, she though, and the notion brought a soft smile to her lips as she looked down at him.

Luffy, confused and worried for his precious nakama, sat cross-legged on the floor with one arm wrapped around her calves and his head resting on her knee. His hat was in her lap, removed so that he could rest against her more comfortably. He was so strong, but right now he didn't know what to do. Nami had often thought that Luffy was fearless, but in that moment she could see how scared he was that his nakama were in trouble, and he couldn't do anything to save them.

Just for a moment, she allowed herself to enjoy the warmth of his cheek on her bare knee and how soft his hair felt against her skin. Luffy was warmth and strength and comfort, and she loved how he was trying to help her, even though he didn't know what they were up against. He had done the same thing at Arlong Park, refusing to leave even after she told him to because they both knew she needed him, even if she wouldn't admit it.

Then the moment passed, and Nami looked back up at her crewmates. Something had to be said to give them all hope, something to look forward to even though they knew how bleak the coming days might be. As the navigator, the one they all trusted to lead them to a safe port, she felt she ought to say something, but was unable to find the words.

Luffy lifted his head from her knee. Even without seeing his face, Nami could feel the excitement that radiated from him. "Let's have a campout on the island!" he declared, eager despite the snow on the ground and the cold wind outside.

"You're… you're kidding, right?" Usopp said. "It's freezing out there, and I have a very bad case of Can't-Go-Out-In-The-Cold disease."

"Oh no!" came Chopper's predictable cry. "Is that really bad?" Even though he was the doctor, and therefore the one that should know best of all how fake Usopp's 'illnesses' were, Chopper always seemed to believe in the latest ailment to strike the sharpshooter down.

For once, Robin lowered her book to contribute to the conversation. "You know, the natives of the frozen Ugulaland used to build huts of branches and snow. Then they would put hot rocks inside and sprinkle them with water to make a sauna."

"Alright!" Luffy cried. "We're going to make a sauna and have a sleepover on the Midget Mystery Island!" He jumped up and bounded towards the door, with Usopp and Chopper close behind him.

Sanji's arm shot out and grabbed the back of the captain's shirt, jerking him to a stop. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

"Huh?"

With a wry smile, Nami tossed Luffy his winter jacket. "It's as cold out there as it was in the old Drum Kingdom," she told him. "We can't have our captain catching a cold."

Chopper, suddenly remembering his post as ship's doctor, began severely telling Usopp the dangers of going outside without a coat. Knowing the gunner, the stories would shortly bring about a relapse of the dreaded Can't-Go-Out-In-The-Cold disease. Still, Nami thought, even that dreaded illness wouldn't keep Usopp inside for long once he heard Luffy's excited shouts about the snow on the island.

The first version of the shelter was a couple of unstable branches propped against a rock wall. Luffy had dumped an armload of snow on top of the construction, most of which had fallen through and made a pile in the 'inside'. It was a good start, Chopper assured him, even if it was only big enough for one person and didn't really have any walls.

Once Usopp lent his very adaptable expertise to the undertaking, the snow cave quickly began to take shape. It started as a rough pile of logs, which he somehow managed to balance in just such a way that, once they were all in place, not even Luffy's rambunctious enthusiasm could topple them. Over this, he and Chopper laid layer after layer of pine branches, weaving them together with a surprising deftness. Finally, they added a thick layer of snow, packed tightly over the whole thing.

Towards the end, Chopper sent the gunner back to the ship with a stern order to warm his hands and not come back out in the cold until the doctor had looked them over. In his excitement over this latest project, Usopp had not noticed - or perhaps chosen to ignore - the cold seeping through his gloves. It had been a while before Chopper had realized that not everyone was as well adapted to the cold as he was, by which point the sharpshooter's hands and nose were frostbitten.

Luffy got sent back at the same time. Sometimes, Nami thought as she settled a blanket around her captain's shoulders, he could be so dense. At some point during his fort-building and exploring, he had managed to lose his jacket. Being Luffy, he hadn't noticed he was freezing until Chopper had pointed it out to him, at which point he had collapsed in on himself, frozen to the bone, his rubbery skin brittle to the touch. Now he huddled in the kitchen, wrapped in several layers of blankets and clutching a mug of weak tea while Nami scolded him.

Chopper let himself into the kitchen, brushing off the snowflakes that were stuck to his fur. "All finished," he told his shipmates happily. "Usopp, just wait 'til you see it. It looks amazing."

"Of course," Usopp said proudly. "I've designed a thousand snow shelters before. When I was exploring the frozen waste lands of Ubulalaland…"

"Ugulaland," Robin corrected without looking up from her book.

"…Ugulaland, a terrible snowstorm hit. My crew and I were stranded for days. Without our magnificent shelters, we would have been killed. Why, one night, it dropped to minus ninety-four degrees, and the terrible Mubungo bears attacked our camp."

"Really?" The blankets slid from around his shoulders as Luffy leaned forward, excitement and interest etched on his expressive face. Nami settled them back around him, giving him a cuff to the head as a reminder not to dislodge them.

"Long nose-kun," Robin interrupted, forestalling any elaboration on the fanciful adventures of the Great Captain Usopp. She closed her book and focused her attention on the gunner. "You remembered to build a fire pit with rocks, right?"

Usopp's chest puffed out proudly. "I did better than that. I built a fire_place_. It will hold heat much better, and help the wood burn much hotter, than any common old pit would."

"You truly are amazing, Long nose-kun," said the archeologist. Nami was sure the gunner completely missed the irony in the woman's words.

"You know," Sanji said thoughtfully, "saunas can get pretty warm." He was leaning back with his elbows on the countertop, the very image of one who was cool and disinterested. "I suppose we had all better wear our bathing suits."

_You don't need to work so hard to hide your excitement_, Nami thought at him as Luffy and Usopp exclaimed at this. The idea of wearing a swimsuit on a winter island was novel enough to illicit some reaction, at least, and they all (alright, most of them) knew what direction the cook's thoughts were headed anyway. Sure enough, there was a telltale drop of blood threatening to drip out of his nose. Nami rolled her eyes. No doubt his mind was filled with images of steam clouds and scantily-clad women and passionate murmurs of affection.

"You have to wear your coat on the way there, though, Luffy," was all she said.

If she hadn't known what a complete liar Usopp was, and that he had never been out of his village before they had met him, Nami might have almost believed his story about building shelters is Ugulaland. The shelter was solid and spacious, with enough space for them all to be comfortable without being too large to heat.

Nami crawled through the small doorway after her companions and watched as Usopp, the last to enter, covered the doorway with a pile of fir branches and hung a blanket up as added insulation. Already the inside of the cave was much warmer than outside, and they hadn't lit the fire yet. To build something like this, with no experience or point of reference, was astounding. In any crew but the Strawhats, Nami reflected, Usopp would have seemed amazing. He was talented and smart and, if not always the most courageous, he was at least no slouch when he did have to fight. It was his misfortune to be forever outdone by the monsters that were his nakama.

Sanji was building a fire in the fireplace, fiddling with the burning kindling as he tried to get the fire to burn just the way he wanted. Always the perfectionist, that was Sanji. No matter how careless he looked, everything he did was meticulously planned and executed. _Mostly with the aim of looking good. _She knew the thought was uncharitable, and only partly true.

Soon, the inside of the shelter became uncomfortably warm as the fire caught, and the coals that Sanji had arranged began to warm up. Usopp was delicately flicking water onto the warm rocks of the fireplace, filling the room with steam. Nearby, Luffy was bouncing excitedly, happy that his plan for a sleepover on the island was working out so well.

"Luffy, you can take you jacket off now. It's warm in here." She shrugged off her own coat. Luffy's face turned red and he started sweating as he realized how warm he was. He pulled his coat off, and tossed it aside, stretching happily in the warm air of the shelter.

Nami picked up his discarded coat and folded it with her own, putting them to one side. As she did, she caught sight of Robin's amused look. The other woman had settled herself at the far end of the shelter with a storm lantern and a book. In a tank top and shorts, she looked cool and relaxed. "What?" Nami asked. She found she was blushing as though she had been caught doing something she shouldn't, although she wasn't sure why.

"It's nice that you take such good care of our captain," the older woman said quietly.

Nami found herself blushing even more, as though Robin was implying something with that. Except that, since it was Robin, she wasn't. Robin wasn't the sort of person who said one thing and meant another. She might not tell you things, but then the omission was deliberate and obvious. In contrast, if she wanted to say something, she said it straight out.

"Well, he's a bit of an idiot," Nami muttered. "He can't really take care of himself." Robin smiled and turned the page of her book.

"Nami-san, Robin-chan!" Sanji caroled, appearing next to them. Even in an old pair of black swim trunks, he managed to appear dressed to the nines as he offered them a tray of cookies with a bow. "A light treat for after dinner."

Smiling, each woman accepted one, although Nami felt her heart constrict as she did. They were only a few days away from starving, and Sanji still treated her like a princess, bringing her snacks and taking care of her. It was like he was denying the danger they were in, daring the world to try and starve them. "Thank you, Sanji-kun," she said, meaning it.

He gave her a bold, cheerful wink, more like a rogue than the doting prince he normally played. Then, despite the low roof that meant everyone except Chopper had to walk crouched over, he sauntered away.

"We'll be alright, won't we, Nee-san?" Nami said, feeling herself smile a little at Sanji's retreating back.

"Probably," Robin agreed with a small smile of her own.

"Round and round and round," Luffy giggled happily, clapping his feet together. His eyes seemed glued to the spinning bottle as it flashed bright, then dark, in the flickering light of the storm lanterns. In the hazy light, it seemed to drag a tail of steam behind its, spinning a cloud of warm vapor like a storm.

Perhaps it had been a mistake to let him have some, Nami reflected. They had passed the bottle around, in celebration of their 'sleepover' and as a silent toast in the hopes of more food and adventures to come. He hadn't even had all that much, she thought distractedly as he fell over backwards, giggling. It had only made it around the circle once, and then it had been Zoro's turn and he had downed the remaining half bottle in one go. Now the swordsman was sleeping, his back against the cool rock that made up one wall of the shelter, and Luffy was playing with the empty bottle.

"Are you trying to start a game of Spin the Bottle?" Sanji asked, leaning back on his hands as though he wasn't interested. His bright eyes gave him away.

Luffy sat up, rubbing his hair and grinning. "A game? Sure! Let's play!"

There was a moment of silence, before Usopp managed to stutter out, "Luffy, do you know how to play Spin the Bottle?"

The captain tilted his head to one side, opening his eyes wide as he stared at his nakama. "You spin the bottle, right? And it goes around and around and around and…"

"Alright, Luffy," Usopp said hurriedly. "You're right. But do you know what happens after that?"

Luffy blinked. "It stops spinning?" he hazarded.

"And then…?" Usopp prompted.

"We… spin it again?"

Usopp sighed. "Right, but first we…?"

"Um…"

Nami took pity on her clueless captain. "The person who spun the bottle has to kiss whoever it pointed to," she told him. Too late, she realized they never should have explained the game to Luffy. They should have just agreed that, once it stopped spinning, you spun it again.

"Let's play!" Luffy said happily. He looked around the circle at his crewmates, hoping to see his eagerness reflected in their faces. Nami followed his gaze.

Usopp looked uncertain, as though torn between wanting to play and keeping apart from this foolishness. Chopper wore an expression somewhere between Luffy's excitement and Usopp's hesitation. Lounging beside her, Sanji failed to look as cool and bored as he was trying to. Zoro was snoring, and Robin, outside the circle, hadn't looked up from her book.

"Well…" Usopp said hesitantly. "I guess…"

Sanji shrugged. "Whatever the captain wants." As though he ever took that attitude normally. Nami wasn't sure she liked his speculative look.

"Why don't you go first, Luffy?" she suggested. Something in Sanji's eyes made her resolve to stop him from ever getting a turn. Well, unless Usopp or Chopper was going to kiss him, maybe, because there was no harm in that. At least not to her, which was what mattered.

With a big grin and a chuckle, Luffy set the bottle spinning again. "The more times it goes around, the better, right?" he asked.

"Ah…" Nami hesitated. Still, there was no harm in letting him believe it. "That's right. It's good luck," she added, just in case he thought to add some silly rule to do with the number of spins. "But that's all."

It took longer than it should have, considering the game, but eventually the bottle slowed its spin. At last, it came to rest with the corked neck pointed at Nami. "It _is_ lucky," Luffy said happily. He didn't bother getting up, but stretched his neck out and gave her a sloppy, innocent kiss on the cheek. It was so much like getting licked by a giraffe that Nami had to giggle.

"Alright, now I'll spin to see who goes next," she told her cheerfully smug captain. A deft twist of her wrist set the bottle spinning again. Sanji was a bloody fool if he thought he was going to get a chance to kiss her, she thought. Spin the Bottle wasn't a common game, but it had an enduring popularity both as a drinking and a kissing game, so it popped up at parties and in bars now and again. When she had realized this, a thirteen year-old Nami had spent two days learning to spin any bottle to stop exactly where she wanted it. Though she had always thought of herself as a thief who stole from pirates, she had never been above a little petty larceny in some of the seedier dives she found herself in, and alcohol, kisses, and a spinning bottle always smoothed the way when she wanted to steal a few wallets.

The bottle came to an abrupt halt in front of Chopper. It was kind of cute how the little reindeer looked at it as though unsure whether it would bite him. At last, with a terrified squeak, he set it spinning again with one abrupt motion. He seemed to huddle in on himself as the bottle completed two lazy spins. As it slowed, he covered his eyes with his hooves, although Nami saw him peeking with a sort of morbid curiosity.

"Oh," he mumbled when he at last looked at where the bottle had landed. "I…uh… that is…"

"It's just a game," Nami reassured him. It was easy to forget, sometimes, that Chopper was the youngest of the crew, and had lived on his own for a long time. Besides, did reindeer even play kissing games?

"Wo-hoo, Chopper, ya get to kiss Usopp!" As always, the subtleties of the situation were lost on Luffy.

"Uh…" Quick as a flash, Chopper kissed Usopp and fell backwards, his nose turning bright purple with his blush. It really was kind of cute, Nami thought, watching the two nakama trying to cover up their embarrassment. It had been more of a reindeer kiss than a normal one, anyway: a cold blue nose pressed against Usopp's cheek, without any contact of lips on skin.

_A giraffe- and a reindeer-kiss so far. What next, a penguin one?_ She thought in amusement. At least it wasn't going as badly as it might have done.

"Hurry up and spin, Usopp," Sanji said. He was still reclined on the blankets that carpeted the floor of their shelter, but she could see he was tense with impatience. _I'm not going to let you get your chance,_ Nami thought.

"Of course. I'm a champion bottle-spinner, you know," Usopp told them. His shaking hands gave him away. The bottle flipped up and twisted around, only completing half a spin when it landed. "That's the spin that won me the World Spin the Bottle Championships, you know," he declared, never one to let a chance for bravado pass.

"Really?" Chopper asked, his earlier embarrassment gone in the face of this new tale of his hero's daring and skill.

Nami ignored them and stared at the bottle that was, for the second time tonight, pointed towards her. Somehow, it hadn't occurred to her that she would have to choose which of her nakama to kiss. There was no option of spinning it honestly: even if she had been willing to risk it landing on Sanji, she wasn't sure if she could have done it. Cheating at this game had become second nature, to the point where she didn't think she could play it properly anymore.

She glanced around the circle, her thoughts racing as she tried to cover up her hesitation. She would have to pick someone, and she'd have to do it before anyone got suspicious.

Not Usopp. Definitely not Usopp. There was something so utterly... non-kiss-able about the gunner the she dismissed the idea as soon as she looked at him.

Chopper? No, he'd already been though enough tonight. She had thought it would be funny, and maybe a bit cute, to have him kiss one of their nakama when she had made him have a turn. Even though it seemed like innocent fun to everyone else, she felt a bit mean for embarrassing him like that. So not Chopper.

She briefly considered kissing Luffy, but he had already kissed her. Variety was the spice of life, after all, and stopped gossipy crew-mates from drawing ridiculous conclusions when there wasn't enough marine-bashing to keep them occupied.

Which left Sanji, and she had already decided that there was no way _that_ was going to happen. Sanji was stressed, badly enough that he had changed from the sweet, if slightly annoying, prince to someone she didn't trust. In the normal course of things, she wouldn't hesitate to kiss Sanji: he would blush and wax poetic and make such a big deal of it that it would become a joke that they could share. She wasn't sure how this Sanji would react.

Nami cast about the circle, looking for some option she had missed. When she realized her solution, she was almost ready to believe that there was a god smiling down on her. With a giggle to hide the deliberateness of her spin, she followed the only course of action left to her.

In a way, it was the perfect solution. Sanji would hate it, but no one would suspect a thing. Her target probably wouldn't even realize what was happening. _Round and round and round it goes, where it stops, only one knows_, she thought acerbically.

"What happens know?" Luffy asked, leaning forward to stare at the bottle as though the answer could be found that way. "It's not pointed at anyone."

"Re-spin," Sanji said quickly.

Nami was about to object, but Usopp came to her rescue. "Well, technically, she has to play it the way she span it," he said slowly. "Even though Zoro isn't actually playing…" Nami worked to keep the relieved smile from her face, and focused on staring at the sharpshooter.

She had only meant to look surprised and puzzled, but her scrutiny of the gunner revealed something she hadn't expected to see. Was Usopp blushing? They were all a bit red from the steam, but that was more of a healthy pink to her way of thinking. Usopp was blushing bright, tomato red across his entire body. _I wonder what he's thinking._

"I… I guess…" she said, trying to sound uncertain instead of triumphant.

"Go on, Nami," Luffy cackled. "Bet'cha it's like kissing a rock."

Nami didn't have to fake her blush as she glanced at her captain. Since when did Luffy know anything about kissing, anyway? She eased herself over until she was next to the sleeping swordsman and studied his face.

She was glad she had her back to her nakama so they couldn't see her expression as she scrutinized Zoro. Though she fought to keep her face blank, it felt like her thoughts were written on it boldly enough for even her dense crewmates to read.

Kissing Zoro probably would be like kissing a rock, she had to admit. Even in sleep, his strong features were set, and there was no hint of fat to soften them. He was just a convenient way out of an awkward situation, but for some reason she felt her stomach tighten at the thought of kissing him. Best to get this over with, then. _At least he's not snoring anymore._

As she leaned forward, a sudden recklessness took over her. They'd only been kissing each other on the cheek so far, but… _why not? _No one else would ever know, especially him. She placed a soft kiss directly on his lips. His skin was cool, so that her own felt feverish. His lips opened slightly at the contact. Unable to stop herself, she let her lips linger on his a little longer until his tongue slid forward to touch her closed lips. She could feel the soft wind of his exhale as she pulled away, shocked.

Zoro's raucous snore broke into her shocked daze, and she retook her place in the circle quickly, blushing hotly. _Had he just…? _That was a thought for another time, she told herself firmly. This wasn't a line of thought she wanted to pursue while her nakama were looking on, reading her thoughts on her face.

"Woo-ee, Nami," Luffy laughed. "You kissed Zoro! It was like kissing a rock, wasn't it?" No, not at all, it had been… but she wasn't going to think remember that right now.

She offered her captain a weak grin, grateful for the slight escape offered by his ridiculous question. "Yeah," she agreed. "The rock would probably be better."

Luffy laughed again and clapped his feet. "Maybe I should teach him. I'm a good kisser, aren't I, Nami?"

Sanji looked almost ready to explode. Before he could say anything, Nami handed him the bottle. "Spin to see who goes next, ne, Sanji-kun?" His anger melted quickly into a sweet smile that seemed like a sickening perversion of his usual one. This was not her Sanji-kun. "I think you need some work too," she told her captain, reaching across the circle to pinch his cheek. She was strangely reassured by Luffy's monstrous grin as his cheek stretched out.

"Yeff," he agreed, unconcerned. "Hey, it'f Ufopp'f turn!" Nami let go of his cheek, which returned to normal with a snap. "Spin it, spin it," he told the long nosed boy excitedly. With obvious trepidation, Usopp took his turn. As before, it didn't so much spin as flip, although it managed three quarters of a spin after landing this time.

"Eh," said Usopp nervously, looking at Zoro, at whom the bottle was once again pointed.

"Haha, go for it, Usopp!" Luffy cheered, slapping the other boy on the back hard enough to knock him forward. To Nami's eyes, the gunner looked extremely red. True, he was being forced to kiss a crew mate - a _male _crewmate - and this might, Nami reflected, even be his first time kissing anyone at all. He still looked redder than the situation warranted, to her mind.

_He'll probably never want to try again, after kissing that rock, _she thought. _He better not want to. _She mentally slapped that sneaky little voice away. She didn't care who Usopp went around kissing, and she cared even less if it was Zoro. Red swept through her cheeks as she remembered her own turn kissing the sleeping swordsman. Usopp might be in for a surprise. _He had better not_, the little voice hissed.

Reluctance written in every line of his posture, Usopp slouched over to where Zoro slept on, apparently oblivious. He crouched next to his crewmate, and took a deep breath. After mumbling something that sounded suspiciously like 'Great Captain Usopp never...' he leaned forward with his puckered lips targeted on Zoro's cheek.

Nami leaned forward, watching closely. She was just gathering some prime blackmail material, she told herself. Just in case Zoro was being unreasonable about her loans to him, or Usopp wouldn't do what she told him. She wasn't watching to make sure that Zoro didn't… didn't what? Her mind rebelled against completing _that_thought process.

She was a woman of the world, she thought, a slight frown creasing her forehead. It wasn't as though she hadn't come across this sort of thing before. With so few women at sea, it was almost _practical_. That she had doubts about most of her crewmates' experience in such matters (even Sanji's, despite his reputation) didn't mean she objected to it.

Still, she found herself strongly objecting to the idea of Usopp kissing Zoro. She gave the thought a little poke, examining it. She hadn't minded when Chopper kissed Usopp, so the gunner probably wasn't the problem in this scenario. (Although, even though Chopper was male, could he really be considered a _man_?) Which left…

"Get the hell away from me, you sick bastard!" Usopp's lips hadn't quite connected before a very awake Zoro shoved him away, hard. Nami didn't have a chance to enjoy the sight of Zoro scuttling away to cower beside Robin, because the off-balance gunner came toppling into her, knocking her into Sanji's lap.

The speed with which his arms wrapped around her waist, catching her, suggested it was an instinctive reaction. All else aside, Sanji would always catch and protect her. The way he pulled her tight to his chest was far too deliberate to be instinctual, though.

In his own way, Sanji was as rock-like as Zoro. The swordsman casually leant against her back sometimes, to talk or tease her and steal her pen while she worked, and she had come to know the feel of his chest. Cradled by Sanji now, she found herself mentally comparing the feel of each set of toned muscles before she ripped her attention away from that diverting, but potentially dangerous, line of speculation._Something to revisit later, _the treacherous little voice in her head reassured her.

No longer focused on the feel of Sanji's body against hers, Nami became aware of his scent. There was the heavy smell of his cigarettes, mixed with a lingering whiff of the spices he cooked with and hint of sweat. Under it all the smell of the sea lingered, as it did on anyone who spent their lives on the oceans of the world.

He was leaning closer to her, so that the scent of him was accompanied by the light brush of stubble against her cheek. How many times had Zoro done the same thing? His movements were rough and playful, and probably meant to annoy Sanji rather than flirt with her. The feel of Sanji's cheek against hers hinted at seduction and desire. Her previous resolve not to let _this _Sanji anywhere near her returned like a bolt of lightning, and she leapt out his grasp, scuttling away much as Zoro had done only a moment earlier.

She saw a number of emotions flash across Sanji's face - surprise, annoyance, embarrassment, contrition - before Luffy provided a very welcome distraction. She wasn't sure how he had managed to get his foot stuck in the rum bottle, but the camaraderie that returned as they worked to get it off and the subsequent breaking of the bottle put an end to uncomfortable situations, for the rest of the night at least.


End file.
